Can't install win xp - hardware configuration error

My pc crashed and i deleted all the partitions on my harddisk, so that is was cleaned up. Then i put the Windows XP disk files on my USB so that i could boot from it. And i boot from the USB and i runned part 1 of the Win XP setup, and made a new partition etc. and it installed the files on it. Then i had to reboot and went to part 2. But when i run 1 of the second parts, it says: "Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your harware reference manuals for additional information". PLEASE HELP ME!!!

A couple of things come to mind. First off, copying the CD to the flash drive won't work. You need to create an ISO file and install that to the flash drive.

Second things is that WinXP can't configure SATA controllers natively. You either need to supply the SATA controller drivers at start up, slipstream them into the files before making the ISO, or if available, set your BIOS to configure the SATA hard drive to run in an IDE compatibility mode.

It is by no means certain that the original crash was a software fault - it could just as easily have been hardware. If it was hardware, by attempting a Windows reload we could now have a software issue too.

One option is to make a Live Linux CD (on another computer) and boot with it. This runs from just RAM and CD but you can access your Windows files on the HD. It will give a better clue as to where the problem lies (or doesn't).

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